OSMO AND HIS MUSICAL OSMOSIS 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 28
          In another life, conductor Osmo Vänskä, the music director of the Minnesota Orchestra,  would be a prize-fighter, in the vein of Muhammad Ali or Willie Pep---dodging, feinting, elusive of every punch thrown in his  direction. If he weren’t already 55, he’d have the makings of a champion boxer, the shiftiest man on two feet. He gave a great exhibition of all that body English in leading the S.F. Symphony (without landing a single punch, surely to the relief of the first-chair string players close to his podium), as perhaps it has never been led before. And if any miscreant were to throw so much as a drumstick his way, they’d hit nothing but air.
            Does it work? Probably better with less experienced musicians around him than with the accomplished pros of the SFS, who seem to respond just as well to the merest twitch of a baton. But Osmo's brand of osmosis works very well for the audience and for this critic.
           Still, Vänskä’s elaborate podium ballets gets him results, as he showed in his Oct. 28 concert embracing two Finnish 20th-century works by Sallinen (not Esa-Pekka Salonen the conductor) and Sibelius.
            Forget your stereotypes about Nordic asceticism;  Vänskä is into the passion of music-making as he leans and gesticulates over the orchestra, shaping some exquisite dynamics.
            The brief Symphony No. 1 (1971) by Aulis Sallinen, 74, leads us into a gentle fantasy world of soft contours and gestures that cannot be grasped. There are dense banks of fog here in a post-Debussyan way, where one loses one’s orientation in the off-focus reveries. There are gentle bells, sonic overlays, and high-low instrumental groups that are widely separated. The work grows in intensity, with the trombones coming in full force, but no increase in clarity---it’s a voyage on a murky night that requires  Vänskä on the bridge to navigate through. Effective solos came from violist Jonathan Vinocour, second violin principal Dan Nobuko Smiley and trombonist Timothy Higgins.
            On to the popular Sibelius Violin Concerto (1904), where the daring strings led off playing softer than I had ever heard. Indeed, most of Vänskä’s attention had gone into fine details of dynamics neglected by most maestros. Thus when star soloist Vadim Repin entered on violin, the stage had been set eloquently.
            Repin has moved up from “exciting young Russian virtuoso” to “mature, mid-career violinist,” but certainly no less exciting. He is big and strong, and gives the enigmatic work a masculine touch. It’s a very challenging piece, featuring big jumps in the violin line, and exploitation of the highest and lowest registers. Repin did it all.
            After the break, some good solid Beethoven without surprises: the “Coriolanus” Overture, and the cheery Symphony No. 8, which is close to being one long Scherzo in four movements. Vänskä and the troops had fun with it.

        These San Francisco Symphony concerts continue through  Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. For info: (415) 864-6000, or go  online. Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (102.1) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2009
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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